A citizen science study analyses the connection between purchasing power and actions against climate change

The “lab-in-the-field” experiment involved more than 320 individuals divided into 54 groups of six people. Image: OpenSystems-UB
The “lab-in-the-field” experiment involved more than 320 individuals divided into 54 groups of six people. Image: OpenSystems-UB
Research
(05/11/2018)

People with fewer resources contribute more to actions against climate change. This is the main result of a study that, by carrying a citizen science experiment out, suggests acting collectively to fight climate change. The study, which measures how a group of people acts against a common harm, has shown that people are more or less likely to give money to fight climate change depending on how wealthy they are. These are the mainfindings of a research published in the journal PLOS ONE, carried out by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the University of Barcelona, the University of Zaragoza and the Carlos III University of Madrid.

The “lab-in-the-field” experiment involved more than 320 individuals divided into 54 groups of six people. Image: OpenSystems-UB
The “lab-in-the-field” experiment involved more than 320 individuals divided into 54 groups of six people. Image: OpenSystems-UB
Research
05/11/2018

People with fewer resources contribute more to actions against climate change. This is the main result of a study that, by carrying a citizen science experiment out, suggests acting collectively to fight climate change. The study, which measures how a group of people acts against a common harm, has shown that people are more or less likely to give money to fight climate change depending on how wealthy they are. These are the mainfindings of a research published in the journal PLOS ONE, carried out by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the University of Barcelona, the University of Zaragoza and the Carlos III University of Madrid.

To do so, the researchers designed a “lab-in-the-field” experiment involving more than 320 individuals divided into 54 groups of six people. A total of 240 euros was given to each group of individuals. Each member of the group was given a specific amount of money. In half of the groups the 240 euros were divided evenly into 40 euros for each member. In the other half, the money was distributed unevenly in quantities from 20 to 60 euros. The experiment took place on the street and during the DAU Festival  -organized by the Institute of Culture of Barcelona.

From here on, each person then had to contribute to a common fund in order to reach a specific goal, namely 120 euros that would be used in an activity to fight climate change, in this case planting trees in Collserola. The participants were allowed to keep any money that was left over. At the beginning of the experiment, each participant knew how much money the other had and at the end of each round they could see how much money each person had given.
This way, the researchers were able to test the economic effort that each individual was prepared to make for a common benefit, in this case the fight against climate change. The results showed that, although all the groups achieved the collective goal of 120 euros, “the effort distribution was highly inequitable”, explained Jordi Duch, researcher at the Alephsys research group (Algorithms Embedded in Physical Systems), from Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
Specifically, participants with fewer resources contributed significantly more to the public good than the wealthier ones, sometimes up to twice as much. The researchers concluded that the poorest participants congregated within the two “generous clusters” whereas the richest were mostly classified under a “greedy cluster”.

The results suggest that future policies could be improved if they reinforced climate justice actions and taught the importance of fairness rather than focusing on teaching people about generic or global climate consequences, as the latter have not been proven to lead to equitable contributions.
“In fact, the study demonstrates once again that cooperation is better than competition at achieving socially desirable outcomes and that, in the case of climate change, cooperation is necessary among all the involved agents”, said the other author of the study, Anxo Sánchez, professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M).
Poorer and more vulnerable

The analysis of the results shows that the groups in which the initial capital was evenly distributed showed two different types of behaviour: one in which individuals contributed to with quantities that were considered fair (approximately half of their initial capital), and another in which people contributed to with much more than was considered fair. Nevertheless, there were many differences in the groups in which the money was unevenly distributed from the start. Those with more money (50 or 60 euros) contributed less than was considered fair, in contrast to those who had less (20 or 30 euros), who proportionately contributed much more.

These results show that “given the inequalities, the poorest groups are the most vulnerable and, therefore, are the ones who suffer the most”, explained Julián Vicens, researcher at the OpenSystems research group and member of the Institute of Complex Systems of the UB.
The experimental device, implemented on tablets, simulates strategic social interactions based on game theory and presents social dilemmas that generate tension between individual interest and the common good. Also, machine learning mechanisms have been applied to identify patterns of behavior.

Bibliographic reference:
Vicens J, Bueno-Guerra N, Gutiérrez-Roig M, Gracia-Lázaro C, Gómez-Gardeñes J, Perelló J, Sánchez, A., Moreno, Y., Duch, J. (2018) "Resource heterogeneity leads to unjust effort distribution in climate change mitigation". PLOS ONE, October 31, 2018. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204369